Myth Busters: Renewal of Singapore Permanent Residence Re-Entry Permit

Date:  July 20, 2012

Back in January, a group of friends were discussing about possible issues you will face when you renew your Re-Entry Permit in Singapore.  Some friends renewal were rejected because the ICA thinks that you should become a Singaporean instead of Singapore PR.

For my scenarios, I am the only Malaysian in the family now, as my wife and my sons are all converted to Singaporean.  So, one of the fear is when I renew my re-entry permit, I might face with some difficulties.

on July 17, I realized that I almost forgot to renew it as my permit will expired in August.  I got slightly more than a month to do so.

There are a few links displayed.  On top of the search list, is the general "Manual" procedure.  Which I do not recommend any one to use it.  It takes 5 days to approve.  And you need to print out the forms and submit the formt to ICA.

Look for the ELECTRONIC RE-ENTRY PERMIT (which is not the top search list)

Use your SingPass to log in, and then fill in your passport details, personal details, and then, I used American Express to pay the $50 for 5 years.

https://erep.ica.gov.sg/erep/index.do

And I click the Submit button.  Few seconds later... The web site says "Your re-entry permit has been approved!"

It is that easy!

So, I really don't know to some of the friends why they got their PR rejected and ICA insisted them to become Singaporeans, and so on.  But for my case, it is a less than 10 minutes job.  You don't even have to submit your passport.  So, the myth that ICA will try to make you Singaporean is not true.  As you can see from my example.  For some special case or reason, they may do that.  But for most of the people, it should be a very easy process of doing it.

But....

My re-entry suppose to finished by Aug 24, but the new permit started from July 17.  That means, ICA eat up more than 37 days of of my last permit time.  hahahahahaha It does not matter la.

But....

It said you need to print out the paper.  Which is A4 size.  and you need to bring this permit along whenever you travel.  Hmmmmmmm.... THis is a a bit strange.  Last time, they chop on your passport for this info.  Now, they ask you to print it out.